'It' Remake Shares First Photo of Pennywise the Clown

Back in June, we learned that the remake of Stephen King's It was courting 25-year-old Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård as its Pennywise, the evil shapeshifting entity most often seen as a dancing clown. Today, the first nightmarish look of the fresh take on Tim Curry's classic character is here, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

The face paint is cracked, perhaps a reference to It's ancient origins, and the bulbous clown-nose is instead depicted as a dab of red paint. The real new touch here is the crimson lines spreading from Pennywise's lips up his cheeks and past his eyes. And that look on his face spells total doom.

“It’s such an extreme character. Inhumane,” the Hemlock Grove actor, son of actor Stellan Skarsgård and brother of Alexander Skarsgård, tells EW. He goes on:

“It’s beyond even a sociopath, because he’s not even human. He’s not even a clown. I’m playing just one of the beings It creates. ... It’s important that we do something fresh and original for this one. It’s purposely not going toward that weird, greasy look."

Skarsgård is familiar with the legendary performance that characterized the 1990 ABC miniseries based on the 1986 novel, saying, "Tim Curry’s performance was truly great, but it’s important for me to do something different because of that. I’ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.”

Argentian director Andrés Muschietti (Mama) is at the helm. It is being filmed as the children's side of the time-hopping tale, with a potential sequel dealing with the kids' second confrontation with Pennywise, which happens 27 years after the first bout. A Sept. 8, 2017 release date has been announced.